Yandex Acquires KinoPoisk MOSCOW and THE HAGUE, Ne

MOSCOW and THE HAGUE, Netherlands, Oct. 15, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Yandex (Nasdaq: YNDX ) today announced the acquisition of KinoPoisk, the largest and most comprehensive Russian-language website dedicated to movies, television programs and celebrities. KinoPoisk's users can read expert and user-generated film reviews, discover most popular movies, watch trailers, get movie news and personalised recommendations, as well as show times and tickets. KinoPoisk has a worldwide monthly audience of 18.6 million users, according to comScore Media Metrix, and ranks as the 16th largest web property in Russia. There are over 100 million movie ratings on KinoPoisk and three million new ones are generated every month.

Using search personalisation algorithms and machine-learning technology along with KinoPoisk's content, Yandex will develop an extended movie recommendation system tailored to users' preferences and interests.

"Yandex is focused on providing the most comprehensive answers to users' questions, including by offering them relevant recommendations," said Dmitriy Stepanov, Head of Media Services at Yandex. "More and more often, consumers are turning to the Internet to get ideas on what movies and TV shows to watch. In order to provide high quality answers, we need to have deep knowledge of the subject matter. KinoPoisk has a huge collection of Russian-language information about films, TV shows, actors and directors, as well as users' and experts' reviews amassed over many years."

KinoPoisk will remain available at its current domain kinopoisk.ru while the team behind the service will be smoothly integrated into the Yandex team.

"Over the years, KinoPoisk has amassed an extremely comprehensive database of film information and recommendations," said Vitaliy Tatsiy, Co-founder and General Director of KinoPoisk. "Yandex's vast resources and technological expertise will help us to bring the recommendation service to a new level, extend its capabilities much more quickly and reach more cinema fans on a wide range of devices and platforms."

Since launching a licensed music service in Russia and the CIS in 2010, Yandex has been deepening its relationship with copyright holders. Yandex and KinoPoisk will work jointly to enhance the relationship with content creators and other industry participants.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

About Yandex

Yandex (Nasdaq: YNDX ) is one of the largest internet companies in Europe, providing the world with search and online services, one market at a time. Yandex's mission is to help users solve their everyday problems by building people-centric products and services. Based on innovative technologies, the company provides the most relevant, locally tailored experience on all digital platforms and devices. Yandex is Russia's leading search service with more than 61% of the county's search market and also serves Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. More information about Yandex can be found at http://company.yandex.com .

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